Opinion

Sharp Corp. shares are up 33 percent since January, and that’s on top of their 116 percent gain last year after Foxconn Technology Group took control. That’s great for investors; not so much for sell-side analysts. They’ve remained stubbornly bearish on the Japanese liquid crystal display maker, so much so that if you had followed the recommendations of all but ...

Responding to revelations of the Trump administration’s luxe travel habits, which have already cost one cabinet secretary his job, the House government oversight committee has opened an investigation. That scrutiny should apply to members of Congress and their staffs as well. By its own accounting, Congress spent 27 percent more on foreign trips last year than it did in 2015. ...

A missing piece in the global growth jigsaw appears to be falling into place. Spurred by higher profits and buoyant stock markets, some of the world’s best known companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Volkswagen AG are ramping up spending on new plants and equipment after years of caution. For an international economic expansion already gathering speed, that could prove a ...

After months of wrangling, the Italian parliament has finally passed a new electoral law. The new rules will make it much harder for the anti-establishment Five Star Movement to come to power. They will not, however, give Italy the stability it needs to escape the low-growth trap. The law is a complex combination of first-past-the-post and proportional representation. Any party ...

The recent disclosures that Russians bought ads from Facebook, Google and Twitter to target US voters in 2016 have left lawmakers investigating how to prevent foreign interference in future elections. But there’s another alarming problem that Congress also needs to address: how to prevent domestic and foreign organizations from duping Americans out of information they unwittingly share on social media ...

The breakfasters at Bob and Edith’s Diner are too preoccupied with their tasty bacon and eggs to notice the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Or perhaps, like all Americans who are more sensitive than oysters, they are in the throes of political exhaustion and are trying to ignore this year’s only competitive gubernatorial race. In any case, they seem unaware that the ...

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s solid election win green lights a continuation of the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) massive economic stimulus, entrenching a divide with global peers who are either heading in the opposite direction or mulling moves to do so. While growth in the world’s third largest economy has picked up, inflation remains nowhere close to the BOJ’s 2% ...

Congratulations! There is a very good chance your city is one of 237 runners-up in Amazon.com Inc.’s competition for a second North American headquarters. True, your town, city or region won’t be getting 50,000 new jobs, an estimated infusion of $38 billion to its economy or a skyline dotted with crystal biospheres. But don’t despair: This bidding process for Amazon’s ...

The Trump administration is taking aim at the Volcker Rule, one of the core elements of the Dodd-Frank financial reform, saying it’s too complex and burdensome. That’s true, but improving the rule shouldn’t mean weakening it. The rule has a vital purpose: denying taxpayer subsidy to speculation. It therefore bans speculative trading at financial institutions with access to federal deposit ...

It’s going to be Janet Yellen’s Federal Reserve no matter who is the next chair. With every headline, financial markets get jolted as investors guess whether US President Donald Trump will re-nominate Yellen to the helm of the US central bank or opt for a more hawkish successor such as Stanford University economist John Taylor. Fed chairs matter. If credible, ...